Tower Lab Endless Leaderboards

Tower Lab keeps score without a damage meter. Steam Early Access is scheduled for September 7, 2026. Official developer footage says leaderboards start by tracking waves cleared and Matter earned once you have cleared the levels in a run and dropped into Endless. This page is that scoreboard: what is counted, what is not, and how to play Endless without treating it like Campaign with extra HUD.

The store FAQ also lists leaderboards for multiple game modes, not only Endless. Until a patch names extra boards, this wiki quotes the waves-and-Matter pair from the official leaderboard video and the Endless description (procedurally expanding map, scaling threats). Confirm live categories on Steam after launch.

What is actually ranked

Waves cleared is the survival board. Endless grows the map and the threat. You are not racing a health bar. You are racing leaks. A Copper body that walks the expanding path is a lost wave the same way a Campaign leak is a lost stage.

Matter earned is the economy board. Grow, Grinder, and fat Copper pay this column. Shrink-only Fan corridors can win waves and still lose the Matter board. That is why matter farming and this page share a shop sentence: Endless is where a greedy Grow is a ranked choice, not a meme.

There is no DPS ladder. There is no last-hit count. Photo Mode screenshots are not scores. Workshop publishes are not scores. If a third category appears (time, cubes used, Puzzle par), it will land on patch notes first.

Adding leaderboards to Tower Lab

When Endless unlocks in a run

The official short is explicit: once you clear all the levels in a run, you can test the same defense in Endless against harder waves. Demo v0.0.4 already advertised Endless plus leaderboards. A February 2026 patch had to fix Endless wave progression and shop occurrence, which tells you Endless has its own shop cadence. Do not import Campaign’s between-stage-only Vend-O-Lab habit without checking whether Endless still sells mid-loop.

Standard TD is the mode that spends Matter even mid-wave from a campaign-unlocked toolbox. Endless is the mode that grows the floor. Puzzle is a separate optimization score. Workshop is unranked authoring. Mix those four and you will optimize the wrong number. The campaign walkthrough is the mode map; this page is only the ranked bit.

How to play for a board, not a clip

For waves: build a corridor that still works when the map expands. Gravity plus Fan is a spiral that can travel. A Tesla glued to one Copper tile will miss the new lane. Leave open space. Enemies and materials still apply: Tesla 3x on Copper, Fan on Plastic, Deflector on Rubber.

For Matter: keep a Grow or a Grinder online even when a pure Shrink line would be safer. Ranked Matter is the reason to risk a fat body. If the expanding map has no cliff, Grow without a pit is a leak and a lost wave. Pair Grow with a control cube from synergies.

Energy discipline still wins. Endless does not print extra energy because the board is public. Hand and energy still refresh per wave. Dumping the hand into a third Rocket is how public ranks die on wave twelve.

What not to copy from a stranger’s rank

Leaderboards are global comparisons, not a shared lab. You cannot paste another operator’s layout from a screenshot and assume the expanding map matches. Seeds, weekly tags such as Overmass (named in campaign notes), and patch versions will split boards. If Steam fragments boards by mode or by week, read the filter before you rage at a number.

This is single-player. A rank does not invite a friend into your Endless. Steam Workshop levels can be Endless-like challenges, but they are not the official board unless Steam says so.

Prep before September 7, 2026

Wishlist, learn the loop in how to play, then decide which board you care about. Waves players should live on control cubes. Matter players should live on Grow, Grinder, and Copper Tesla. Everyone should read the system requirements if they plan to leave Endless running at 3X on a laptop.

The 1.0 FAQ promises deeper Endless progression. Until that ships, the board is waves, Matter, and whatever Steam adds in the first EA notes. This wiki will not invent a third column to look complete.

Play the expanding map. Count leaks, not damage. Then look at the number.